Search results

I was born in a back-to-back in Deritend, 12 back of 56 Skinner Lane and baptised in St Martin's in the Bullring. When I was still quite young we moved to a house in Selly Oak which was terraced and had an outside toilet next to the coal shed, but it seemed like a palace compared to the place we...

Thank you all for these happy memories. I also used to queue with my mum to see Santa. I remember my mum chatting to other mums as we edged our way up the stairs, floor by floor. I think we all must have had a little more patience back in the fifties and early sixties! I seem to remember that...

I went to the opening night of The Silver Blades. It was a Saturday in May/June 1964 I think. My dad had been given tickets for the opening. I had spent the day with my primary school football team at Wembley Stadium to watch the schoolboy international (England-Germany, 0-0 draw) and when I got...

Hi again Lizzie45. My mum used to buy loads of paintings and prints from jumble sales, many of which I now have on my walls! I've added below a link to the French Wikipedia site for Emile Beaussier which contains many examples of his work, including your painting. Although I'm a Brummie boy...

Well from what I've been able to find so far, "Le Petit Port de St Tropez" was exhibited at the "salon" of the Société Lyonnaise des Beaux Arts in 1938. I believe Emile Beaussier was president of the Société Lyonnaise des Beaux arts from 1937 to 1939. I'm intrigued as to why a copy of this...

OK found it. The painting is "Le Petit Port de St Tropez" painted around 1938. I'll try to find out more

Hi Lizzie45. Yes Emile Baussier was born in 1874 in Avignon. He often painted Mediterranean scenes, especially Martigues. He died in 1943. The painting you show is definitely a Mediterranean scene, perhaps of Martigues itself.

Hi DavidGrain. Why on earth do we Brummies say "any road up?" It sounds like a corruption of something else, rather like "San Fairy Ann." Perhaps I'm trying to stretch a point but "any road up" sounds like a confusion of "à propos de rien." If so, perhaps it came back with the troops after WW1...

Here's another one. In Birmingham we often begin a comment with "Any road up..." or end one with "actually." I've never heard this use anywhere else in the country. Sorry to bang on about the French connection but in France people often begin a comment with "à propos de rien" and finish one with...

Well not exactly. When the Normans arrived in England in 1066, they brought their cooking with them, including a little dessert called "sucre brûlé" (literally "cooked sugar"). But the Anglo-Saxon population who rather liked this new kind of food couldn't say "brûlé" (the French "r" is difficult...

Hi jmadone, San Fairy Ann was certainly something my dad learned to say from his father's generation- and I've certainly drunk a lot of plonk in my time! It's an interesting idea that all these French words found their way into our vocabulary via the First World War but I suspect that certain...

Hi jmadone and Hi Moturn. I think "Arley Barley" might actually be "Allez, Parlez" - French for "come on let's talk." if so, I'd really like to know why there are so many French words in Brummy language! What's weird is in French they have the same kind of expression. "Chat perché!" is what kids...

When I was a kid at Raddlebarn Primary School, if we were playing a game in the playground and wanted to pause the game to talk or negotiate we'd shout out "Barley!" and everyone would stop, gather round and listen to what we had to say. Sometimes we also held up crossed fingers. When talking...

Hi Wally. How right your are! When reminiscing about our life in the back to backs my older sister always talks about how everyone's door was always open in the yard, and as a child she could always wander in and out of people's houses and always feel safe and welcome. We when moved out to a...

I think the blues club you're referring to is "Henry's." Black Sabbath played there to a record audience- not exactly blues, but a Birmingham legend nonetheless!

I think "The Opposite Lock" was a play on words. It was partly a reference to motor racing, the owner's obsession -and very trendy at the time (was there a Birmingham Grand Prix, partly along Smallbrook Ringway at about that time?) and partly as a reference to its situation, on Canal Street...

I'm fascinated by these conventions in soaps. It's like the guy in the hat in "Eastenders" who never speaks but is always conveniently around to be asked to look after the market stall for one of the main characters when they have to nip off for a while to do something to move along the plot...

Perhaps as well it's just that we had more time to do these things. The pace of our lives was slower and these repeated gestures became embedded in kind of muscular memory. My grandfather was a carpenter and cabinet-maker in Birmingham, my uncle too with his own workshop. My dad was also...

Perhaps these objects have such a firm place in our memory because they were tactile. I'm sure you remember the feel of the metal tin as you opened it (with that click and rattling noise of the contents,) the feel of the pencil as you sharpened it to an acceptably sharp point (as well as the...

Hi Elmo and Knobbydave. That tin is absolutely the one. I had a set back in the sixties- long since lost. Do kids use this stuff anymore or is it all computer-generated these days?